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Minister defends Telenor Thai Facebook block

Norway's industry minister has defended the country's majority state-owned telecoms company Telenor for blocking access to Facebook in Thailand on the orders of the country's new military junta.

Published: 11 June 2014 08:48 CEST
Minister defends Telenor Thai Facebook block
A DTAC employee at the company's Bangkok headquarters. Photo: Telenor
"It was a question of shutting off or being shut down, Monica Mæland told Aftenposten, citing Telenor executives she had spoken to on what she described as a  "complicated and difficult" situation. 
 
The newspaper reported on Saturday that Telenor had blocked access to Facebook on its network when a military junta took power in a coup on May 22nd. 
 
Access, an American human rights group, has accused Telenor of aiding the junta. 
 
"By blocking access to Facebook, Telenor has helped to break the Thai people's right to freedom of expression and their right to access to information," the organisation's political adviser Peter Micek told Aftenposten. 
 
Telenor has targeted its international expansion on South and South East Asia, buying shares in networks in Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. 
 
It is the largest international investor in DTAC, Thailand's second largest mobile phone company, with a 42.6 percent stake.
 
 

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Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Published: 17 September 2021 09:06 CEST
Updated: 17 September 2021 15:52 CEST
Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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